A Different Sort of Light
by We Are The Final Shadow
Summary: Harry heads into his fifth year, new challenges await him that he, nor anyone else saw coming. Can Harry deal with the upcoming war with Voldemort? Alongside a Marriage Contract with the Black sisters? On top of this, Harry must also come to terms with the fact that Professor Dumbledore isn't the man worthy of his trust that Harry first believed. (Cross Posted on AO3)
1. Chapter 1

-Chapter One-

A soft torch light encompassed the entire room. It was a primarily barren room, the only furniture being a wooden table with a chair on either side and a large fireplace at the end of the room. Two men were currently seated at the table, a piece of parchment laid between them.

"Are you sure Lil won't go mental that we're doing this Prongsy?"

"I doubt that she will, we have to make sure that Harry's looked after even when we're gone Padfoot."

"Alright then, let's get started."

"So, who goes first? I've never really been privvy to one of these before," James asked Sirius.

"The younger of the two families usually, which in this case is mine. The Potters are linked to the Peverells' who are one of the original magical lines after the founders."

The longer-haired man took a deep, steadying breath. His wand drawing through the air to slice the skin on the underside of his finger open, "I, Sirius Orion Black hereby pledge my bloodline and heritage to house Potter through marriage between the next most suitable heir to the line and the sisters three upon the event of the death of the Lord Potter. The group must be wed upon the date of the eligible heir's sixteenth birthday or the usual rules shall come to be, on my magic so mote it be."

Sirius flexed his finger downward, allowing for a droplet of blood to fall from his flesh, soar downward and collide with the parchment beneath them on the table.

"It's that simple?"

"James! HURRY UP BEFORE THE TIMER RUNS OUT, WE'RE ON A SCHEDULE BEFORE I LOSE MY MAGIC!"

Panicking, James quickly used the spell to make an incision in his finger as well, "I, James Hadrian Potter hereby pledge my bloodline and heritage to house Black through marriage between the sisters three and the next most suitable heir to my line upon the event of my death. The group must be wed upon the date of the eligible heir's sixteenth birthday or the usual rules shall come to be, on my magic so mote it be."

James dropped his blood onto the parchment as well, causing the artefact to begin shimmering with bright, translucent golden light.

"Say James?" Sirius said as the parchment was doing its thing.

"Yeah?"

"I wasn't going to lose my magic if you took your time, I was just messing."

"I'm going to bloody murder you, Sirius."

Still smirking, Sirius crooked his head toward James, "the important thing is that the four of them will have a place in the world once it's all said and done."

"Why them though? I'm sure there is plenty of eligible candidates through Britain and even the rest of the world that will be better options for such a thing closer to Harry's age."

"They all live in secret unhappiness, the three of them…it is my hope that we can free them from it."

"But…Narcissa is married with a child?"

"I know this, but…they will accept it in time, the marriage between Lucius and Narcissa is one without love, it is my hope that this will fix that…unless ultimately they divorce before that point. Hopefully, we will have a chance to prepare them for this, especially Harry."

"The best situation that we can hope for is that we survive through this and it never becomes reality. As powerful as those witches are, the do have a certain lure towards the dark side."

"It's a risk we have to take for Harry's protection, Prongsy."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Padfoot."

x-x-x-x-x

" _We'll hold him off Harry, but we can only hold him off for a few moments, you must return to the Portkey."_

 _Harry had reacted quicker than he thought possible, the fourteen year old rushed across the cemetery, clutched the whimpering Peter Pettigrew, before pointing his wand, "Accio Cedric! Accio Cup!"_

 _Somehow, he'd managed to capture both the fallen boy who had given his life tonight and the criminal who'd fed his parents to Voldemort when he was merely an infant._

" _Harry!" Dumbledore exclaimed, rushing down the steps, with Professor Mcgonnagall and Cornelius Fudge in close pursuit._

" _Voldemort…Voldemort's back," Harry choked out through harsh sobs, "Cedric…asked for me to return his body."_

" _THAT'S MY BOY!" Amos roared, charging down through the steps and onto the grass to clutch his son's body._

" _Harry, you have been through a great ordeal tonight but this is not the time nor the place to discuss it. Wait…Harry, is that?"_

 _Harry rose to his feet, tossing the whimpering form of Pettigrew at Fudge's feet, "This is Peter Pettigrew, you'll find the other parts of him not in the box sent to his mother here. Pettigrew framed Sirius Black for the death of the thirteen muggles and my parents thirteen years ago."_

Two emerald orbs snapped open, it'd seemed like months since Harry had dropped the body of Peter Pettigrew at the feet of the minister, Sirius Black had been invited for a full trial in the following days, but for some reason, Harry'd not heard anything regarding the result of the trial in question just yet. To be quite honest…Harry hadn't really been told much of anything from anyone, not even Ron or Hermione. It was concerning on a multitude of levels…levels that Harry wasn't sure he was comfortable with even being the first one to broach. For now, the only thing he could do was to bite his tongue…and hope to Merlin that someone came to collect him from the Dursleys and soon.

Lying atop the loose floorboard in Harry's bedroom lay a crumpled copy of the daily prophet but the front page was still barely visible:

 _ **THE RETURN OF HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED:**_

 _ **June 24**_ _ **th**_ _ **1995 was to be the final task of the Tri-Wizard tournament, for one wizard to rise above three other champions to claim their eternal glory. The four champions: Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, Acclaimed Bulgarian Seeker Viktor Krum and The-boy-who-lived Harry Potter all entered the maze, which was to be the final task of the tournament. During the process of the task champions Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter were transported via Portkey into the Cemetery of the village of Little Hangleton where Cedric Diggory was murdered by the long thought deceased Peter Pettigrew and Voldemort was subsequently returned to life.**_

 _ **Harry Potter managed to escape the graveyard with his life, the body of Cedric Diggory and Peter Pettigrew. This came as a shock to Ministry officials since Pettigrew was deemed to have been killed thirteen years ago by one Sirius Black along with thirteen muggles on the same street. Under questioning by Veritaserum, Pettigrew revealed that it'd been he and not, in fact, Sirius Black who had been the Potters secret keeper that night when He-who-must-not-be-named raided the Potter home on Halloween night of 1981.**_

 _ **Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge has since reached out to Mr. Black and offered him a real trial, which Sirius Black was actually denied thirteen years ago from the word of Bartemius Crouch, the former head of the Department of Law Enforcement, who was demoted to the Head of International Magical Co-Operation due to some unforeseen circumstances.**_

 _ **No word yet on whether Mr. Black has responded to the Minister's offer.**_

A soft screeching sound suddenly caressed Harry's eardrum, he turned his attention to the metallic cage rested atop his drawers which contained his second friend in the entire magical world, his snowy owl, Hedwig.

"I'm sorry," he beseeched her, looking at the pitiful food that she'd been given, "I'd give you better food if I could, but it's too risky to let you outside during the day, if Uncle Vernon gets wind of what I'm doing it won't be pretty."

A much softer hoot escaped the owl's beak and Harry was able to breathe a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was for her to have to eat such meagre meals, but since it was mainly smaller portions of his already small dividend, he didn't really have much choice in the matter.

x-x-x-x

"To hell with that, Albus. He's told me on multiple occasions how those people treat him and now that I'm a free man, blood wards or not. Harry's not staying with them any longer. Grimmauld Place, albeit a bit more medieval than the kind of setting he'd be used to in Muggle London is a far better place for Harry. At least I can guarantee that he won't be treated horribly around me! Especially considering that in four years of being his Education Provider that you haven't noticed how bloody malnourished the kid is!"

"Despite…"

"I don't want to hear the excuses Albus, I'm going to collect Harry from that god-forsaken house if it is the last thing that I do. What better place for Harry than under the watchful guidance of the Order? I mean that was going to be the base for it, wasn't it?"

"It was, but I've managed to find somewhere more secluded that we can operate more as an Order…rather than a business. No offense, Sirius."

"None taken, the house does have that feel. I hate it, but if it's the safest place for my godson, then I'm willing to look past all of that. It's fidelius charm is ancient, it only passed to me since I'm the last living male heir of the Black Family. Please."

"Sirius," Dumbledore sighed, "Alright, you can take him…but not alone. I'll send Alastor and Kingsley with you just in case anything untoward happens."

"Thanks but it won't be necessary, I'll be able to move less obviously on my own, even if it takes me a little longer."

Dumbledore sighed again, "We can't be too careful."

"I know, trust me."

x-x-x-x

"My…My dark mark is gone?" Bellatrix looked down at her wrist in shock, the dishevelled woman rose up to her full height, slowly traipsing her bony fingertips down the surface of the pole in her prison cell as if it were something out of some horrific dream that she would never be able to wake up from, "Azkaban…did he really control me that much…?"

"Mrs Lestrange?"

"It's Ms. Black," Bellatrix answered haughtily, "I was wed under the imperious curse, it no longer applies to me."

"I hoped you'd say that," the voice said, the air of it was so familiar to Bellatrix, it was one voice that before everything had gone downhill that she'd adored hearing, before the Imperious curse, Bella and Sirius had been extremely close.

"What're you doing here, Siri?"

"I've come to take you away from this godforsaken place, don't worry your release and divorce papers have been settled with the Minister, which didn't take much since trying to marry someone while they're under influence of the imperious curse is actually illegal. I didn't know this up until recently either."

"Why are you bailing me out?"

"Because, I have reason to believe that it's time the Blacks returned to power along with the last remaining Potter. Harry is far below the power level that someone of his blood should be at his age and its all because of the abuse that he's been suffering through."

"The Potter boy didn't grow up as a pampered little brat?"

"I feel as though Dumbledore is trying to manipulate his situation so that Harry has nothing to live for except defeating Voldemort when the time comes."

"And this involves me…how?"

"Well, James and I actually foresaw Dumbledore turning into a manipulative old bastard…well even more of one than he was at the times that we all knew him best. We couldn't trust him to not try and completely take control of Harry's life so we did up a betrothal contract between him and three witches that we knew would be able to prepare him for war, while also making sure that he was protected from Dumbledore's manipulation."


	2. Chapter 2

-CHAPTER TWO-

The divorce had been finalized about two weeks ago, Narcissa had abandoned her married name as soon as the split had been dealt with and returned to the use of her maiden name, Black. Draco had chosen to go with his father, meaning that she was truly left alone after the split. Not that Narcissa minded, Lucius had corrupted his son and that meant she was better off without him in her life as well. Suddenly, a tap at the door of the room she'd hired from the Leaky Cauldron jolted the woman out of her thoughts, one of her eyebrows arched and she approached the door, slowly pulling it open towards her. As soon as she'd opened the door, Narcissa's jaw fell open. "Y..You?" she gasped. "Good to see you too, Cissy," Bellatrix stated, rolling her eyes, "Over four years and the best you can deliver is something like that?" "I'm sorry," she whispered in response, "But I thought you'd been sentenced to life in Azkaban?" "Well, I was. But Sirius proved my innocence." "And why would he do that?" "Some contract that he made with that Potter bloke when Harry was born." "They made a contract? You mean a betrothal contract between you and the Potter brat?" Bellatrix nodded her affirmation, "Not just me, it includes you and Andy as well." Narcissa's eyes widened, her pale features contorting with shock, "How is that even possible!? Were they drunk!?"

"I'm not sure about all the logistics involved, but apparently if he's not wed to the three of us by his sixteenth birthday, us three, the Potter brat and Sirius lose our magic. The father would lose his to, however seeing as he's not present to lose it, he will not be."

A fortnight after a stressful divorce with the head of the Malfoy family, Narcissa was already having to deal with this? What kind of cruel joke was fate trying to play on her right now.

"And how does he expect Andromeda to react to this news, Bella? She hasn't spoken to any of us for several years, the last I heard, she was happily living at home with a muggle-born and her daughter."

"Much like you, she was in a marriage in which love didn't exist. Nymphadora is off doing her own thing, prancing around with the Aurors. Andy is much like you, a lonely woman in desperate need of happiness."

"And you expect us to find it with the Potter brat? What dimension does Sirius have you living in?"

"He said they crafted the contract because of Dumbledore."

"What does he have to do with any of this?"

"Sirius said that he trusts the old codger about as far as he can throw him."

"Muggle analogy I assume?"

"He did spend a lot of time with Lily Evans, who was a muggle-born."

"How do you know all of this?"

"Sirius and I had a long conversation the night before I went to find you."

"Where is he now?"

"He's gone with an old friend of his to collect Potter."

"Of course he has," Narcissa continued, rolling her eyes before she can stop herself, "And I assume you're here to collect me, then we're going to collect Andy and then go to the same location and Sirius and The Potter brat?"

"Well, I'm surprised that you worked it out so fast on your own to be completely honest, but yes. That is the plan. We all need to prepare Harry for his battle with the dark lord, away from prying eyes such as Dumbledore's."

"And because we'll lose our magic otherwise, we are forced to marry the boy too?"

Bellatrix said nothing, she only nodded. Knowing that words weren't necessary at that point. Although the elder of the two Black sisters present could see the frustration clearly ingrained into Narcissa's face. She felt awful for her sister, she truly did, having just got out of a loveless marriage and being thrust into another one…it couldn't have been the nicest pill to swallow.

"I suppose I'll need to cancel the room then?"

"No," Bellatrix continued, choosing to ignore the emotionless quality to the tone of Narcissa's voice at present, "We'll need this room for another week or so, I've let the Inn-Keeper know in advance."

"Why on earth will we need it for a week?"

"Do you really want to be around Grimmauld Place when Potter blows his top after finding out about the contract?" After pausing for a moment and getting no response, Bellatrix couldn't help but to allow a smirk to curve onto her lips, "That's what I thought."

"What does any of us have to gain from this?"

"Potter spent his entire childhood being abused by his so-called relatives, which Dumbledore dumped him with the night the Dark Lord murdered them," Bellatrix explained, "And Sirius had gone after Pettigrew as soon as Hagrid had taken Harry from Sirius under Dumbledore's orders. Sirius was so frustrated with Dumbledore's idea of a good environment for Harry that he wasn't thinking straight when he went after Pettigrew? Who…ultimately in the end turned out to be a coward."

"This would just be an escape for him then?"

"It's more than that, we can teach him what it really is to be loved and have a real support network of people in the magical world who aren't just manipulating him into being some wounded saviour free to be dispatched at Dumbledore's earliest convenience."

"In love with someone you've never met, Bella? That's not like you."

"I'm not in love with him Cissy, but I'm willing to give this a shot."

"But why? You're a free woman. You should be over-the-moon that you're finally free of Azkaban, but instead you're dealing with this…"

"Voldemort imperiused me into marrying Rodolphus Lestrange the night I was arrested, but it became null and void when the Ministry realized that I hadn't done it of my own free will," Bellatrix finally admitted, "I'd rather be wed to the Potter boy rather than having to deal with that elitist scumbag on a nightly basis."

"I don't get it…you're making it sound like…"

"Sirius did this as much for us as he did for Harry. It protects all of us."

"But what about Sirius himself?"

Bellatrix chuckled, "Come on Cissy, you know that Sirius is a special kind of wizard more than capable of looking after himself."

Narcissa couldn't quite fully resign herself to the fact that this was going to happen one way or another, whether she liked it or not. Being married to a fifteen-year-old was not exactly where she saw herself after finally being freed of Lucius, but unfortunately it didn't seem as if she'd been given a loophole out of this situation…whatsoever.

"Does Sirius think that us living in Grimmauld Place is wise?"

Bellatrix was shocked at the quick change of subject, but she decided to roll with it for now: "How'd you mean?"

"Well, he wants to keep the Potter brat as far from Dumbledore's influence as possible…yet he's attempting to situate him right under the Professor's nose?"

"It's Sirius' idea, but I trust he has a good reason for it."

"I hope so," Narcissa added in.

"You hope so? Why are you so concerned if Dumbledore knows where Potter is all of a sudden?"

"Because, if we are to be wed as the contract states, then he will want to try and manipulate us into ending the agreement once it comes to pass, so that he can manipulate Harry again, free of external interference."

"…You changed your mind rather quickly…"

"I haven't," Narcissa said firmly, "But, if the contract is terminated I want it to be because either you, myself, Andy or the Potter brat are unhappy with it, not because some self-involved manipulative old fool wants the world to be bent around his fingertips. That doesn't sit right with me, Bella."

"I can see your reasoning."

"Speaking of Andy, where is she?" Narcissa asked, "Shouldn't she be here if we're going to have the use of this apartment for a week?"

"Apparently Sirius organized for us to visit her at her new apartment."

"And he thinks that we should hope to be able to have such a private conversation? I'd rather not have the contract privy to Dumbledore's knowledge until we're absolutely sure that he can't damage it."

"You seem as though you're looking forward to being married again already," Bellatrix said playfully, a light jabbing tone to her voice.

"I've already given my reasons, Bella. What time do we meet Andy tomorrow?"

"Sirius said that it would be a well of a ways into the night, at least at a rough estimate."

"Then, what shall we be doing with the rest of the day?"

"I want to purchase a new wand," Bellatrix said, her eyes lighting up a little at the prospect of doing such a thing, "The one I was associated with before being released from the Imperius is accustomed to someone with a brutal desire for torture and seeing as that isn't me anymore, the wand isn't quite working for me the way it's meant to. Besides the lower the risk of anyone finding out about the contract other than those intended to know is rather unsavory."

"Despite the unpleasant situation that we've both found ourselves in Bella, for what it's worth…I am happy to see that you were never a traitor the Black name after all."

"Never," she smiled softly, approaching Narcissa and encircling her in a tight hug, "Mother and father hid it well from the others, of course, but we were always the right kind. Unfortunately Andy let her guard down and Aunt Walburga blasted her off the family tree."

Narcissa returned the hug, nodding to the statement that Bellatrix had made, before turning her attention out the window. Everything had changed so quickly for the woman. Bellatrix's appearance wasn't unwelcome of course, though things were becoming more evident, Dumbledore not being all that trustworthy wasn't unsurprising to the former Malfoy Matriarch, the senile old fool oozed foolishness and the so-called 'Light Side' were even bigger fools for listening to anything that he had to say.

It was a wonder they did though, boy-who-lived or not, how could Dumbledore expect a teenager to be able to save the world without the proper training? The stupid fool was probably expecting for Harry to win by some out there reasoning like 'Love' which for all its power wasn't going to work for this kind of situation. You can't stop someone like Voldemort with love. All of Dumbledore's manipulative little games or for 'the greater good', at least that's what the Hogwarts Headmaster would call it.

x-x-x-x-x-x

The soft hues of the starlit night sky bedazzled the streets of Privet Drive, illuminating the world for the residents to see, assisting the street lights to illuminate the otherwise dull suburban area. Harry let his emerald optics turn slightly to take in the small beauties of the world around him while he got the chance. Also known as the times in which The Dursleys were fast asleep in their respective bedrooms. One thing that Harry did notice upon closer inspection of his window was that a small fleck of white against the darkness of the clouds was approaching from the distance. The closer the shape got, the more pronounced it became, first Harry could see the shape of the bird's wings and the rest of the body followed.

It was Hedwig, bringing Sirius' reply. Once the snowy owl had reached a close proximity to his window, Harry yanked it open and hurriedly took the letter that was attached to Hedwig's leg. Once he had it in his grip, Harry tore the envelope away from the parchment inside to read:

Harry.

There's been a change of plans.

I did manage to talk Dumbledore into letting you come and stay with me, but something else that I'd forgotten about has come to my attention within the past couple of days. I will explain in more detail when we are away from the Muggles. Speaking of which, I'll be coming to collect you tomorrow morning at roughly two A.M so make sure you're ready.

Sirius.

"Two am!?" Harry hissed vehemently, his eyes snapping towards the clock, almost immediately his eyes widened in a panic, he had fifteen minutes to try and organise his belongings? This was not going to be fun. Harry pulled himself out of bed, almost hissing when the cool night air briskly caressed his skin, it was not the most pleasant feeling in the world, but he had no choice but to suffer through it. Harry rushed over to the loose floorboard and removed several items from it. Taking a few moments to shove them inside his trusty knapsack. He swung it over his shoulder and headed to make his exit, creeping over to his bedroom door and silently turned the door handle.

Harry was going to have to be careful here, there were certain things that needed to be done if he wanted to collect his belongings before Sirius arrived and without alerting the Dursleys to what he was doing, it wasn't the easiest task he'd set himself, but Harry was determined. Moving as silently as he could, Harry lightly pressed his foot against the flooring of the external hallway to his bedroom. After checking to make sure that he hadn't made too much noise, Harry continued to creep along the carpet. The house looked and felt completely different this early in the morning, the silence and absence of his relatives was potentially the best feeling in the world. Knowing he was about to get away from that for another year in a few short minutes was a selling point for Harry.

One of the items he'd removed from the loose floorboard would come in handy when Harry reached the cupboard under the stairs where the Dursleys locked his school supplies away at the end of every Hogwarts year. Not even the threat of Sirius Black had been enough for them to change their minds about doing that. He removed the hairpin from his pocket and inserted it into the lock of the cupboard.

Harry had watched Fred and George Weasley use this trick when they'd come to collect him in the summer before his second year at Hogwarts and had always felt it a valuable skill to learn, after all, there was some doors in which magic would do nothing to unlock it and for Harry right now, he couldn't access his magic due to the statue of secrecy, so this was the next best thing.

After a few moments of jiggling, the lock clicked open, revealing Harry's success. He smiled a little then yanked the door open. Harry felt it necessary to check one last time to make sure that his clothing was covering his injuries from the previous years, hiding those would remain a paramount concern of Harrys', the Dursleys' hadn't done anything this summer, mainly because he hadn't given them a chance to, however, he didn't want to let anyone else know about his freakishness.

Harry pulled the drawstring in the centre of the cupboard, almost immediately it illuminated, revealing his trunk and broomstick sitting on one side of the cupboard. He stepped over to the trunk first, rapidly unclicking the dual locks on either side, then hauled the trunk open. The emerald eyed teen rummaged through his trunk until he found his wand, then stuffed it into his pocket.

There was no telling what could potentially happen in these early hours…especially since Harry didn't know how he and Sirius would be traveling to wherever it is that they were going, once again, he'd only been told as little as possible. Perhaps there was another reason for Sirius not being completely honest with him, letters could be intercepted after all. One last thing left to do, that was to wait for Sirius to arrive and pray that none of his so-called relatives wake up before he does.

-End Chapter-

A/N: Just so everyone is completely aware. This story is entirely AU. The Black Family (Cygnus and Druella at least) Shared a similar view to Sirius Black, but had to hide it from their family for obvious reasons. Their daughters were raised with these morals but also were taught to hide it from the extended relatives.


	3. Chapter 3

-Chapter Three-

How long was Sirius going to take? Harry had been sitting on the front porch for about twenty minutes and there was still no sign of his godfather anywhere, had he got the address long? Attacked by a Death Eater? Worse? His anxiety concerning the situation was rising and there wasn't much that he could do about it at the current point in time. Right as Harry was ready to turn heel and return inside to face the undoubted wrath of the Dursleys in a few hours upon their awakening a soft sound of a whirling wind from a block or two away caressed Harry's ear-drums.

What could he possibly expect…this wasn't going to end well, he could feel it in his bones. Harry timidly reached into his pocket, extracting his wand and preparing to aim it at any incoming hostiles. The rush of wind was associated with apparation, at least that what he gathered the sound was when multiple people had utilized the skill during his previous summer holidays. He and The Weasleys had visited the Quidditch World Cup in order to watch Bulgaria compete against Ireland in the finals.

"Harry!"

A voice had hissed at him and Harry almost fired a spell on the tip of his tongue out of instinct alone, but luckily Harry had discerned the man's appearance before he could.

"Sirius, this isn't the normal way that you come…anywhere."

"I had to be discreet, I also moved the dates forward slightly compared to what I told everyone else."

"Whatever for?" Harry asked, his eyebrows arching in confusion.

"Dumbledore isn't as trustworthy as he'd lead you into believing Harry. He wants what's best for the greater good, not what's best for you."

"Dumbledore isn't trustworthy?" Harry questioned his god-father, "Have you had too much to drink celebrating your freedom, Sirius?"

"I thought you'd say that, but I'll let you judge him for yourself once I can tell you more of what's going on when we get to the safehouse and we've got the whole group with us."

"The whole group…Sirius…"

"I'm sorry Harry, I can't divulge any more information for now, we're too in the open and we need to get out of here right now before the wards break and Dumbledore gets here with a fleet of members of the Order. I tricked him because I believe he's planning something to stop me taking you away from here."

Harry pocketed his wand once more, his emerald optics shifting around the area rapidly, "And how exactly are you going to do that? Apparating away with me isn't exactly going to look good in front of the Ministry."

Sirius chuckled, "You think I've not thought of this, Harry do you not know who you're talking to? This is the guy who spend a year and a half out-running the Ministry of Magic before he was acquitted."

"Congratulations on being freed, Sirius."

Harry suddenly rushed over to his godfather and threw his arms around him in a brotherly embrace, "I've never been so relieved. You've had it rough over the past thirteen years and that's putting it into a socially acceptable phrase. I'm proud of how far you've come, you know that right?"

"What's brought on all this sap suddenly?" Sirius responded with a smirk, "Finally settled in your mind that you're going to be leaving Privet Drive forever huh?"

Harry did release a chuckle for his godfather's benefit, but he continued to speak nonetheless, "Even if I was to be still stuck here, Sirius I would still be happy that you finally were declared innocent after all these years. Did Fudge give a reason as to why everything moved ahead so quickly?"

"Well, initially I thought it was down to them finally getting their hands on that pathetic vermin Wormtail, but apparently, The Wizenagamot had been up in arms for years that Barty Crouch Snr. Didn't give me a proper trial fourteen years ago. Even some of the Ministry members were furious. Being the Lord of an ancient and noble house at the time, my mother Walburga passed away roughly four months before you were born, thank Merlin, nasty piece of work she was. My grandfather was still alive when you were born and he had slowly started being more open about accepting me…but roughly a week before Pettigrew sold us out, he showed up at a bar infested with Death Eaters."

"And he was murdered? Just like that?"

"There are some dark secrets in my family Harry, things that ordinary wizards would probably keel over in disgust at finding out what they were. My grandfather was no exception, fortunately though he was a member of 'The Grey Wolf Society'."

Sirius hissed the last word, so that it couldn't potentially be heard out in the open by one of the Order's spies.

"What's the…"

"Shhh! Not here."

"Sorry," Harry quickly remedied.

"We'd best get on the move Harry," Sirius continued, pointing his wand, concentrating on something as he aimed for Harry's belongings, " _Evanesco!"_ a soft fire passed over all of the things Harry had brought out of the Dursley house with him right before it all vanished a moment later. Hedwig's cage had vanished as well, but Harry had already let her out to fly to wherever it was Sirius lived.

Harry followed his godfather through the silent streets of Privet Drive. He was silent for a moment or two before deciding to voice the question that'd been on his mind since his godfather's arrival on the doorstep of number four.

"How exactly are we going to be travelling Sirius?"

"Teleportation," The older wizard explained, "It's like apparation except it's not traceable."

"Not traceable? How does that work?"

"Teleportation is through an object…it's not unlike a portkey but it's not locked to a single location." Once Sirius had finished speaking he reached inside the pocket of his jacket once again, this time pulling a strange metallic knick-knack from the inside shaped like a scarab beetle.

"Each of the Most Ancient and Noble houses have a small trinket dedicated to teleporting. This Scarab Beetle comes from my Ancestor's obsession with Egyptians."

Without waiting for Harry to reply Sirius pressed the metallic beetle to his lips and whispered something illegible against the cool surface of the strange device. A loud whirring sound encompassed the street a moment later as the beetle opened the back of its shell and sped off into the air. Though, it only travelled a few metres…right before it exploded into a bright circular mass of light, which looked as if it was the entrance to some kind of tunnel.

"Right, after you Harry."

Harry looked to the portal, then looked back at Sirius. He'd only been with his godfather for roughly ten minutes and already he was being shown some incredible kind of ancient magic. This was odd for Harry, even after having spent four years in the Wizarding world already. After releasing a breath, he didn't know he was holding, Harry leaped off the ground, diving straight into the mass of light before him.

The tunnel wasn't a walkway as Harry had first pictured, but instead it seemed to pull him through the light completely under its own power. He wanted to scream at the pace the portal was moving, however, he found that the pressure of the zone was too much for him to even open his mouth. Harry was about ready to puke…right in that moment he was thrown out of the light and out onto dark concrete cobblestones of some kind.

"Ugh," The young wizard complained, hauling himself to his feet a moment later as Sirius comfortably sauntered out of the light, walking out onto the street as if it were nothing.

"Wouldn't it have been smarter to I don't know, appear _in_ the safe house?" Harry snapped.

Sirius sighed, catching the now returned metallic Scarab beetle in his grip, "Yes, we could've but unfortunately, due to the protections on the place, you would've been trapped in the portal for eternity."

"Oh…" Harry concluded lamely, "Sorry Sirius, I didn't mean to act that way."

At first, Sirius found it so odd that Harry apologized for something he didn't understand, then it hit him where Harry had been, minus the time he spent at Hogwarts and he realized what was the root cause of it. In that instant Sirius felt another rush of anger directed at his godson's so-called family.

"Where are we exactly?"

"Hampstead," Sirius divulged, "My family owns a hidden estate here. My grandfather mainly used it, but he moved into a smaller home when he reached the later years of his life. He gave it to me specifically in his will, it's where I've been living since the trial ended."

Sirius led Harry across the street, Harry was looking around in bewilderment trying to divulge all the new scenery of Muggle London all at once. Seeing that Sirius was leading him to a house that looked like it'd been abandoned for several years, Harry had to admit that there must've been some incredible magic protecting the house, though he didn't know what exactly it could be, he did look forward to finding out.

"I, Sirius Black do hereby give permission for Harry Potter to obtain entrance to The Grim's Den, Hampstead."

As soon as the words had passed from Sirius' lips, the ground began to tremble and Harry watched in amazement at the scene unfolding before them. Bricks, timber and all other sorts of materials were weaving around rapidly, rebuilding the house right before their eyes.

"Sirius?" Harry asked while the objects continued their work, "How is it doing that?"

"The Fidelius Charm Harry, it's a charm that protects the house from the outside world. Only people that the secret-keeper has revealed the location of the house to may see it for what it actually is. What you're witnessing now is The Grim's Den altering its security to put you on the approved list of entrants."

"Wait…how did you get my belongings inside here?"

"Well, since I already know what's inside…and being that I'm the secret keeper of this place, I can get anything inside the house. Whether it be another person or an object. Hedwig's already been inside due to the response from your last few letters, so she also got inside without a hitch."

Once the building had constructed itself in Harry's view, he crossed the other half of the street behind his godfather, then waited for him to unlock the door. As soon as they took a single step inside, Harry's jaw fell open. _It was huge!_ The entry-way ran both sides with polished oak walls adorned with photographs of Sirius, a man who looked like him and another that looked almost identical to Harry…except for his eyes.

"My dad was friends with your grandfather as well?"

"Aye," Sirius stated, "We were the founding members of the society along with Moony."

"Can you tell me more about the society?"

"All in good time Harry, let's get you settled in first and whilst Kreacher is handling dinner I will relay you the tale of The Grey Wolves."

A smile crossed Harry's pale features and he nodded, despite how intrigued he was, Harry knew that he was going to have to wait, all things had their time, and these was one of things that couldn't be rushed.

"Well, do you suppose you could tell me how the Ministry got away with imprisoning a member of a most-ancient and noble house then?"

"Crouch Snr. Hated my grandfather," Sirius explained, "And he had the previous Minister in his pocket. The entire community was aghast…but there was nothing they could do about it. That's part of the reason that Fudge was so easily accepted into power. They wanted rid of the last one. Unfortunately, he couldn't get around to giving me a trial once I was imprisoned without substantial evidence. The wizarding justice system is warped kiddo."

x-x-x-x-x

Two figures sauntered down the moonlit street, they were about a head apart in height, the two women were focused completely on the task at hand, there was no point messing around here after all. They had a job to do.

"How can we be sure that she won't just throw us out the door?"

"Sirius said that he owled her ahead of time to explain that we would be coming."

"This doesn't sound good."

"We have to trust that he knows what he's doing, Cissa."

"Sirius has always been mental, but this scheme that he's conjured is the most ridiculous yet."

"It wasn't just him, James Potter would've had to have a hand in it as well, since it is a marriage contract with both parties must sign and those two were always the worst for hare-brained schemes."

"Come then, we're going to be late for the meeting we've supposedly been scheduled."

\- End Chapter-


	4. Chapter 4

Bellatrix gave her younger sister a nod, then tapped her hand against the front door to the apartment complex in which Andromeda had been staying since her and former husband Ted Tonks had divorced. From the information that Bellatrix obtained through Sirius, she'd found out that Ted had changed towards Andromeda when Nymphadora was born, he didn't like the idea of such an un-natural ability running through his daughter's veins above her already strong magical connection on her mother's side of the family. Andromeda had been distraught and immediately cut herself off from the situation, Nymphadora herself was barely graduated from Hogwarts and neck-deep in the Auror academy these days and, according to Sirius, had a bright future within the field.

"Who's there?" Andromeda demanded without opening the door.

"It is I, Bellatrix Black bringing Narcissa Black at the terms discussed with The Grim," even though Sirius had been exonerated now, Bella thought it best to use the code-name that Sirius and herself had come up with during early stages of planning in hopes of throwing anyone in the order off their trail, the only one who would know the true plan within the order was Remus Lupin, because Sirius was adamant that his old friend could be trusted. Especially since Sirius had spent the better part of two months teaching Remus Occlumency. The headmaster of Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore was known (only by a select few observant souls) to practice legilimency on members of the student and staff bodies at Hogwarts, Sirius had also dropped to her that he was going to make sure that Harry learned the same skill to prevent Dumbledore from manipulating him any further either.

In some ways, Bella was somewhat proud of her younger cousin. He'd pulled both herself and Narcissa out of abusive and controlling marriages, set them up with a respectable half-blood wizard, even if he was half their age and was making works to undo the mind-control that the old fool Dumbledore was utilizing no doubt for what the senile old fool thought was 'The Greater Good'. Sirius had told her that under no circumstances would he trust anyone outside of Harry, herself and her two sisters unless that person's name was Moony. At least until others proved that he could trust them. Dumbledore may have the theatrical 'Leader of The Light' poster going for him, but the one actually preparing Harry for his confrontation with Voldemort, the one who was bringing together allies and teachers for him, preparing for the skills he'd need to learn in order to win, that was Sirius. It seemed like Dumbledore was doing nothing more than waiting for Harry to die and the more she thought about it, the more Bellatrix didn't like the idea.

Right when her train of thought seemed to pause for that split second, the front door to Andromeda's apartment swung open, "I'm surprised that you're both actually going through with this."

"Better that brat than Lucius," Narcissa grumbled, seeming to be resigning herself to fate rather than giving herself a chance to be happy in the proper environment. True, Bellatrix herself wasn't too keen on the idea, but it was what had to be done for the best interests of all those involved, she however did not envy Sirius having to tell a fifteen year old boy, one who's every move has been determined by someone else up until this point, that even his own marital partners have been selected for him and that they were all at least double his age, old enough to be his mother even. At least they got Andromeda rather than the powder keg that Harry Potter was described to be on more than one occasion.

"Well, no use standing out here trying to discuss things," Andromeda observed, "They say that even the trees have ears these days."

"Not something we like being reminded of," Bellatrix commented sagely as she stepped into the apartment behind her sisters.

"Well, at least it's not the shambles we thought it was going to be," Narcissa said, the first sign of her natural humour slipping back into her visage.

"Despite what happened between Ted and I, I had to try and raise Nym at the same time. I couldn't afford for her to grow up with the absence of one parent physically and the absence of another mentally, she deserves better than that. So I assume that the Grim has also filled both of you in as well?"

"Yes," Narcissa began, "What are your thoughts on it Andie?"

"I honestly have no idea," Andromeda admitted, "He seems like a nice enough young man, but Sirius really went to the extreme with this contract…How he got James to agree to it, I'll never know."

Narcissa who'd been quite close to Lily before everything went down in her wedding to Lucius shuddered, "Perhaps The Stag went along with it easily, I doubt the Flower did however. She was a muggle-born so she wouldn't have understood the customs…unless the rumours of her studying the etiquette of wizards every night before bed are to be believed."

"Judging how well she did as an Unspeakable….I'd say that she spent most of her free time studying things that no one else would've expected her to," Bellatrix said in agreement with her sister.

"Let's be fair though, the Grim is doing Reindeer a wonderful favour. Grim himself is very proficient in Defending Ones-self against the forces of the dark. I am adept with Charms and Astronomy. You Narcissa are wonderful with Potions and caring for any sort of magical creature. Bella your transfiguration abilities are next to unbeatable. Between us we cover an entire core Hogwarts year of teaching…"

"Andie…"

"Grim is preparing him for the battle with Voldemort as Dumbledore never would, I know."

"Even when we were younger those were our best skills, is it possible that Sirius planned this, even back in those days?" Narcissa questioned the other two women with a volume of interest in her tone.

"It is possible, even if it is slightly unlikely for Grim to be anything but spontaneous. Whatever his method and reasoning, he's done what he believes to be the best thing for the survival of the wizarding world."

"And besides," Andromeda cut in, "it's not as if Reindeer could be as disastrous as Lucius, Rodolphus or Ted even if he tried. I've heard stories about how selfless and noble he can be sometimes."

"We'll need to rein that in," Narcissa said before she could stop herself, "It's okay to be noble and to want to help people, but it's not okay to let people walk all over you because they know you'll just roll over and take it."

"It seems like you're even starting to warm up to the idea of being with the Reindeer." Bellatrix teased her.

"I just want to make the most of a chance to set things right with the world, we've all lived through unhappy and abusive marriages, perhaps this is a backwards way at giving us three a second chance at love whilst also giving us and Sirius a second chance at being a genuine family that doesn't hate each other's guts or try to murder each other at every turn."

"That is very true," Andromeda agreed, "I also wanted to apologize, you both warned me about Ted…but I didn't listen."

"You were young and in love. We couldn't blame you for that Andie. If Walburga knew about the true allegiance of our family then we would've been blasted off the family tree along with our parents as you and Grim were."

"That's all in the past," Andromeda said, waving her sisters off, "And completely out of your control. I chose to run off with him after you'd all warned me about him especially mother and father. Now we must focus on more important things. When are we to meet our new betrothed?"

"Grim asked that we give him at least a week to explain the situation to the reindeer."

"I bet he's not going to be happy," Andromeda voiced, trying not to shudder.

"Safe bet," Bellatrix agreed.

"We'll convince him otherwise."

"We will in time," Andromeda agreed, "But we cannot rush it…we might run the risk of pushing him further away…permanently."

"Between the three of us, he'll never escape," Bella spoke, a smirk forming across her pale features.

x-x-x-x

"The Order of The Grey Wolves, as I said before, is a society that my grandfather and your great-grandfather founded during the heat of the first war. They realized that Dumbledore's order weren't getting things done…they knew the importance of fighting fire with fire. The Death Eaters were prepared to kill…and they believed that the light should do the same."

"Whoa…"

"Yeah, it was a rough time."

"Maybe we could reform it since Dumbledore has seen fit to reinstate the Order."

"Not yet. I need Dumbledore to believe that I'm in his corner at least initially before we're ready to deal with the backlash of it. But there is something I need to talk to you about Harry and it's quite urgent."

"What is it, Padfoot?"

 _I wish James was here to tell him this, it's not going to be easy._

"Well, when you were a baby, your father and I were worried that there would be no one to make sure you were safe, happy and loved after Voldemort ripped us to shreds. So we made a contract between our families that would ensure your protection."

"Oh, no big deal," Harry shrugged, "Like a loyalty contract?"

"No Harry…Marriage Contracts."

"Marriage Contracts…as in _plural_?"

Sirius almost recoiled from the tone of his godson's voice, but he pressed on anyway, it was going to get him at the very least hexed in a few moments anyway, "Yes, plural Harry. You are betrothed to Bellatrix Black, Narcissa Black and Andromeda Black."

"Wait Narcissa… _You got me into a marriage contract with Malfoy's mother!?_ "

"Yes, but Harry she doesn't associate with those two anymore. She was roped into it by her parents to marry Lucius, Bellatrix was imperiused to marry Rodolphus Lestrange and Ted Tonks was abusive to Andromeda, so she was forced to terminate her own marriage. They have suffered albeit differently to you, but that isn't to say that they haven't suffered as harshly."

"They were forced into marriages…and you went and did the same thing to them! Not to mention the fact that they are all so much older than I am!"

"Harry try and see reason, they have real-world experience…enough to teach you what you need to know to fight against Voldemort, I bet they also have so much love to give considering their situations. Which, if your history is anything to go by, is something that you need on an exponential level that I cannot give you directly."

"Were you drunk when you made this contract, Padfoot?"

"No and neither was your father. We were doing what we did with your best interests at heart, even your mother agreed believing that we'd have to fix Dumbledore's choices of how your childhood should be spent."

"And you thought taking the choice of who I spent my life with from me the smartest course of action did you?"

"Don't be bitter about it Harry, marriage contracts are not uncommon in the Wizarding World, not even multiple ones, which are less common nowadays, but in the prime of times they were very popular. Look, at least give yourself a chance to meet them before you press all your anger out at me for doing this alright. I was just doing what I thought was the best option for you…I was trying to free you from Dumbledore's manipulations in the only way I knew how."

"Alright Padfoot I'll give them a chance, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."


	5. Chapter 5

_**Lumos!**_

 _ **Welcome one and all to another chapter of 'A Different Sort of Light' I hope you enjoy it and as always please read and review. Flames will be ignored.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Harry Potter, I just like to play in the Sandbox.**_

-Chapter Five-

A week had passed since Sirius had divulged the true nature of the contracts to Harry. He was exasperated about the whole thing and was furious that he had to go through with it for the reason of losing his magic if he didn't. He didn't mind really that he was already married, it was just the fact that these women were all a lot older than he was, but he supposed that Sirius and his parents had their reasons, so he would make the best of the situation that he possibly could, both for the sake of his magic and the sake of at least trying to have a semblance of a good life whilst being stuck in this situation.

"When do I meet them?" He asked Sirius on the morning of his seventh day living at Grimmauld Place.

"Tonight," Sirius said, "It would've been earlier but Bella said that she had something to do before coming over to meet with us."

Harry nodded, trying not to let his nerves seep out into the open.

"It'll be fine pup," Sirius tried to convince him, "I bet that they are just as apprehensive and nervous about this as you are, they've barely gotten out of abusive marriages. I did this to protect all of you."

"I know, Sirius…but…what if they automatically throw me in the same category as their ex-husbands?"

"I doubt they will, but correct me if I'm wrong here, but do you want them to give this a chance as well?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Not for those reasons, Old dog. If I'm going to be trying to make this work, by rights they should be doing so as well."

"Fair point," Sirius conceded, deciding for the sake of the situation, it was best to not press Harry about being referred to as 'Old Dog' there would be other times for that no doubt.

"But what shall we do until they arrive?"

Harry wondered this as well, it was relatively early in the day and if his new betrotheds weren't getting here until early evening at best, the two of them were going to need something to do, at least for the first part of the day. He wouldn't have to wait long until his godfather decided what the two of them should do though.

"Perhaps it would be best to run a medical on you," Sirius said, "See the damage that the Dursleys' have done and work on getting it fixed. You are far too small for someone of your age with the kind of physical activity that you do. It's not an insult to you, but to those whom raised you under the orders of Dumbledore."

Harry bit back the reply he'd been waiting to unleash when Sirius quickly amended the fact that it wasn't his fault, but that did bring a fresh set of questions to Harry's mouth, "Is there even a medical person within Britain that we can trust won't go to Dumbledore with my location?"

"As a matter of fact there is, he is exceptionally skilled in the healing arts, but could never find a job because of his status as a werewolf, he only received a job from Dumbledore in your third year so that Dumbledore could keep a better eye on you."

"Professor Lupin?"

"Yup," Sirius said almost gleefully.

"Wait that means that Remus didn't resign because of Snape getting out that he was a Werewolf."

"No, Remus resigned because he discovered the _real_ reason that he was even hired in the first place Harry. He is an invaluable ally and a very close friend of mine and your parents as you already know."

"How will we collect him?" Harry asked, "I mean, we're both far too easily recognized to go far in the wizarding world without being detected, we could run the risk of me being dragged back to Number Four."

"I have thought ahead on that, _Kreacher!"_

A thin _crack!_ Sounded throughout the dining room and a second later a small, diminutive creature popped into existence within the room, he had grey-toned flesh and wide tennis ball eyes, but unlike the house-elf that Harry knew, his ears were down-turned giving him a distinctly…depressed looking appearance.

" _Master calls me as though he did not disappoint my mistress, her own flesh and blood betraying her, besmirching her house with the presence of a half-blood._ "

"Kreacher, shut up. Right you are going to go and collect Remus Lupin for me. Do not speak to, signal or reveal to anyone what you are doing in any sense of the word. No hand signals no expressions, no nothing."

Kreacher looked slightly crestfallen at having all the loopholes covered, but bowed nonetheless, "As master wishes."

Then with another thin _crack!_ Kreacher had vanished.

"My mother's house elf," Sirius explained, "Never really liked anyone else except for her and my brother."

"He seems a little…depressed if I'm honest Sirius."

"Yes, he would…he claims that his heart was broken when my mother died and that I dishonour her memory just by my mere presence in this place."

"Well, while we wait for him to return d'you think you could tell me more about The Grey Wolf Society?"

"The Grey Wolf Society huh? No questions about your new betrotheds?"

"Let's not go there, Old Dog."

"Ouch, wounded. Harsh Pup, very well…let's see…In the heat of the first war against Voldemort right after my grandfather had formed the Society, your father, myself and Remus all joined. We loved feeling as though we were part of something that didn't have Dumbledore's fingerprints all over it. As I told you before the only real person in my direct family that I could trust was my grandfather. Shortly after the formation though, he fell in battle and we stormed over the ones that had done it. It was around this time that we changed the name from the Grey Society to the Grey Wolf Society after the shape of my grandfather's Patronus. He was an honourable man and was disliked strongly by a majority of the Black Family because of it. Not that he cared though."

"I didn't know that he died so early in the formation of the society, what happened?"

"He was cornered by three Death Eaters on a reconnaissance mission that he set for himself, unfortunately, we underestimated the lengths that the Death Eaters would go to…just to prove their loyalty to their master, it was after grandfather's deaths that James and I took over the helm as leaders of the Society, it was also when the Society became more open to killing their enemies."

"And…The night my parents were murdered?"

"James…trusted the wrong man as you know, but it wasn't my idea for switching Secret Keepers. It was actually Dumbledore's James was hesitant, but went through with it because he trusted the headmaster."

"He shouldn't have," Harry sighed.

"No, he shouldn't have, but James has passed as has your mother and we must deal with the repercussions of that. The question is…how do we proceed from here?"

"Dumbledore brought the Order of The Phoenix back when Voldemort returned right?"

"Yes…"

"Then we should bring back The Order of The Grey Wolf."

"Are you sure that to be the wisest idea, Harry?"

"Well, I wouldn't be involved in it, at least not directly. I do feel that we should have some kind of force of our own if we're going to be coming up against the Death Eaters and The Order. I think it's necessary."

"Who would be members?"

"You of course, Professor Lupin as well and anyone else who can prove themselves loyal to our cause."

Suddenly the thin _crack!_ Resounded throughout the room once more, Kreacher had returned with a man who looked to be in his early forties, with tattered robes containing a few holes here and there.

"You really should get some new robes my friend."

"You know that it is difficult, Padfoot."

"You should've asked Moony."

"I could never become a charity case to one of my best friends."

"Not that you ever could, but either way, I need your help my friend."

"What's…Harry? I didn't know you were here already," he turned back to Sirius, "Decided to finally pull Dumbledore's golden boy out from beneath his feet then?"

"You know it, I also activated the marriage contracts, we cannot afford to take any risks, especially where Dumbledore is concerned, with him and Voldemort both trying to destroy the wizarding world in different ways, we certainly have our work cut out for us."

"Did I overhear you correctly? You're thinking of reforming The Grey Wolf Society?"

"Yes," Sirius and Harry affirmed.

"You cannot trust the Order to that end?"

"When have they proved to do anything in anyone's best interest or gain, other than Dumbledore's?" Harry asked his former defence professor, "Professor Lupin, I'm not sure that I can trust anyone who is not present within this room right now."

"Harry, since I am no longer your Professor I'd prefer to be called either Remus, or if your uncomfortable with that, Moony."

"Very well, Moony. I can't trust anything that Dumbledore and his lackeys are up to. I'm surprised that he hasn't tried to contact me through my friends yet."

"He actually has," Sirius said, "They both wrote to me asking if I knew where you were and requested that I take you back to the Dursley's as soon as possible to make sure that you were safe."

"After everything I told them about that place?" Harry snapped.

"Unfortunately, I had my suspicions about Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger's true loyalties even back in your third year…but as they were only suspicions I felt it best not to mention anything, I am truly sorry Harry."

"It's fine Moony, it isn't your fault, in hindsight…with Ron's jealousy and Hermione's love for authority I should've known that they only befriended me because Dumbledore asked them to keep an eye on me for him."

"We can not fault ourselves for this," Sirius told his godson, "What's done is done and now we just need to take steps to ensure that these sick and twisted manipulations end with this conversation, we're not going to let Dumbledore push you around any longer, Harry."

"I second that motion."

"We'll get to the official stuff in regard to the Society very shortly, Remus the real reason I called you here is because of the fact that you are the only Medi-Wizard that I can trust hasn't been corrupted by Dumbledore. I need to know for certain what the damages from the Dursleys' have done to Harry's body both in physical and magical terms."

"I thought as much," Remus nodded, "Alright, let's get to work then."

The former defence Professor extracted his wand from the inside of his robes and muttered something underneath his breath, a soft glow emanated from his wand following the incantation and he ran it along the length of Harry's body. The more Remus scanned, the more his hand holding the wand began to tremble.

"Lily would be turning in her grave," he muttered, trying not to let the tears fall which had gathered in his eyes.

"How bad is it?"

"Malnutrition that has almost depleted Harry's entire magical core, Several Scars and internal injuries…along with a stathis lock that Dumbledore placed on Harry's magic to limit him even further."

"That old fool!" Sirius snarled, "Can we fix it?"

"Yes, it will not be comfortable or easy," here Remus turned to Harry in order to make sure that he began to understand the risks of what doing this might entail, "But we have no other option, if left like this Harry won't last for longer than maybe a year…at the most."

"What do I need to do?"

"Well, Sirius and I will order you blood-replenishing potions, several enchanted salves and other magical remedies, then I assume you're already starting to eat properly so that it a bonus and for the last factor of the healing, we will need to wait until the rest of the healing has been completed or we may run the risk of killing you even more prematurely to the time you received in your current condition."

"I'm prepared for the risks that you've outlined," Harry said, "I want to live longer than a year…and I want to right the wrongs that the old fool and the old snake-face have driven into the wizarding world. I'm not going to die for some crackpot old fool, the one thing Vernon got right was speaking of Dumbledore in that fashion."

x-x-x-x-x

"Remind me why we're here again, Bella?" Narcissa asked as the three sisters walked side by side down the streets of Muggle London.

"Because, we have one more task to do before we settle in at Grimmauld Place for the next while."

"And what task might that be?"

While Narcissa's tone had held an enormous amount of frustration, Andromeda's was primarily laced with curiosity and a want to know what their eldest sister had in store for them today.

"We are going to get the first bit of the old moron's control of our bethrothed revoked. Since the Marriage contract has been activated by Grim, since Reindeer has no power to do so anymore, we can technically take it straight from the moron's hands and place it into our own or someone else of our choosing at least until he becomes of age."

"You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?" Andie continued.

"I have," she agreed, "He's ours, not Dumbledore's."

-End Chapter-

 _ **Thank you all for joining me for another instalment of 'A Different Sort of Light' in the next chapter we will find out more about the formation of the new and improved Grey Wolf Society, along with Harry meeting the women for the first time.**_

 _ **But now, I must ask you. My readers for some help.**_

 _ **Firstly, who do you think should be prominent members of the Society aside from the members already mentioned in this chapter? I'd rather not fill it with NPCs, but it can be done if necessary.**_

 _ **And Secondly,**_

 _ **If anyone has ideas for cute/playful/teasing sort of interactions between Harry and His Betrotheds either drop it in a review or private message them to me, I would also dedicate the chapter that the idea appears in to you as an added bonus.**_

 _ **Nox!**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Lumos!**_

Disclaimer: Don't own HP or anything associated.

-Chapter 6-

"Alright Harry," Remus said, "Now, we may have to order the potions and salves and things, but there's something else we need to do."

"What's that Moony?"

"I believe it's far time we fixed those eyes of yours."

"What?"

"James had something similar done but wore glasses with only illusion lenses in them to throw his opponents off, plus he said he got used to the comfort of them."

"That's not a bad idea," Harry murmured, "Throw the opponent off when they think they've beaten me by getting rid of my glasses."

"Bingo."

"Are you sure it won't stunt his healing process Moony?"

"I'm sure of it, Old dog."

Sirius sighed, "I now know where Harry learned that term from."

Remus chuckled a second, then his expression returned to the one of complete sincerity, a look of focus in the man's eyes, "Harry, are you ready?"

"I am," sensing that it was probably the right thing to do, Harry removed his glasses and placed them on the table beside him.

Remus pointed his wand at Harry's face, and began chanting in Latin, several words of which Harry didn't even understand, but he trusted his parents' friends, more than he trusted anyone else in the world. In a few moments he'd gone from having blurred vision without his glasses to having perfectly clear vision, everything seemed more pronounced than usual too, his eyesight had _improved beyond perfectly!_

"You seem surprised Harry, if I was you I'd be questioning why no one told you about these methods sooner."

"I bet it's because my dad had glasses, right? It's just another way for the world to say I look like him?"

"That's what it's looking like more and more as of late. That way society can only expect me to be a carbon copy of what my father was during his lifetime."

"And as much as you have similarities with him, they don't realise that you're actually a lot more like your mother than you are your father," Sirius told him.

"Thanks for fixing the eyesight, Moony."

"Don't worry about it kiddo. But, Sirius is there another reason that you picked me? I'm sure there is other able healers who won't betray your confidences."

Sirius looked to Harry, who simply nodded.

"I'm reforming the Grey Wolf Society."

"Are you barking mad, Sirius? What do you think would happen if you announced to the world that you're doing that?" Remus said, shocked that Sirius was willing to bring the group back together after so long, "And most of them have transferred to the order nowadays anyway."

"I know they have Remus, but the old crowd will jump at the chance to re-join the wolves. Dumbledore's methods don't suit a lot of them."

"Unfortunately, that is pretty well linear with the truth, I was especially surprised that Alastor joined the Order in the absence of the Society."

"He'll be one of the first that I recruit."

"I thought as much, alright I'll re-join too. Dumbledore's methods aren't the best and besides that I was beginning to think we were going to hinge the war simply on the old man's word, which some might see me doing, but I'm not that stupid."

Sirius was practically grinning by the time his best-friend had stopped speaking, it would be an invaluable asset having Remus working with the society, he was their unofficial medic back in the first war and would hopefully reprise the role this time round.

"It's good to have you back, Moony."

"You as well, Padfoot."

Remus then returned his attention to Harry, knowing that it was important that he be spoken to as an adult rather than him talking to Sirius and make Harry feel like a child, he knew the son of his friends hated that more than anything.

"Harry, have you considered how you're going to avoid being under Dumbledore's scrutiny whilst at School?"

Harry pondered this question for a few moments, but when he came up with nothing, he was forced to admit that there was something that he didn't know.

"Not really, maybe just avoiding him for the most part."

"Luckily our method is a little better than that, Occlumency is an art which is used to defend one's mind from external influence. Dumbledore uses an art called Legilimency to invade a person's thoughts and find out what they're thinking."

"I can see why he always seems to know more than he lets on then," Harry agreed, "So, who's going to teach me this?"

"I will be," Sirius cut in before Remus could answer, "I'd become quite proficient with it before I got chucked into Azkaban."

Harry nodded, "Should we start today before I'm forced to meet those who end my self-reliance."

The last Potter wasn't trying to sound negative, but at the same time, he didn't feel that Sirius and his father had taken Harry's personal feelings into account when they made these contracts. He would, unfortunately, have to come to terms with it because there was no way that he was going to escape it now.

"We can't start today," Sirius said, "Even if Bella, Nissa and Andie weren't coming I would definitely be doing what I'm going to today either way, it's time you got rid of your cousin's hand-me-downs. Don't argue either, as your god-father it's my job to look after you, I know that you can look after yourself but it's not a crime to let other people do it sometimes."

"Alright, Old dog. I'll play ball."

Sirius bit back a snarl, then he walked over to Remus and shook his hand, "It's been good to see you brother, get the call out to the old pack, we're going to be making some changes around here."

"Of course, brother, may the howl of the night protect you."

"And the fangs of the moonlight rip your enemies to shreds."

Remus approached Harry and ruffled his hair before he turned on heel and headed back out of the house.

"I'm surprised he didn't want to come with us."

"It's going to be a lot of work to get the old group back together without Dumbledore knowing too much about it too soon. We can't be too careful, if we slip even slightly, we're going to lose the small amount of traction we have."

"We can talk more about the Grey Wolf later anyway," Sirius said, getting to his feet, "We've got a long day ahead of us before your betrotheds get here and I want to make sure that we're here before they arrive so that they can come straight in and not run the risk of ruining security. I don't want too many people to be seen coming and going from this place, it's sure to rise questions that I'm not really wanting to have to answer. Too much frequent activity and Dumbledore is likely to figure out where you are before Hogwarts starts and that's not something we should want to open the opportunity to deal with unless we absolutely have to."

Harry nodded, getting to his feet from the table, his emerald eyes shifting into the direction of his godfather, "Hang on…I'm too easily recognisable, even in the muggle world since a lot of people are looking for me right now…is there a way we can disguise me somehow?"

"Hm, without using Polyjuice Potion, I can only think of one way…"

Sirius hastily pulled his wand out of the inside of his robes and aimed it at Harry, " _Augmento!"_

A second later, Harry's scar had vanished, his black hair had shifted into a light tone of blond and his otherwise emerald green were now a shade of deep cerulean.

"How does it look?"

Harry turned to look at the mirror hanging to the side of the basement dining room and he grinned despite himself, "It works perfectly."

x-x-x-x

Harry and Sirius traipsed through Diagon Alley, keeping as silent as possible, even though Sirius' name had been cleared now, he wanted to be cautious…if any of Dumbledore's spies were in Diagon Alley in this moment, then there was sure to be an issue. Despite the disguise that Harry was wearing, Sirius walking through the alley with someone who looked around his godson's age was suspicious to the eyes of the Order. He knew that, which meant the two of them were going to have to make the wizarding leg of this trip quickly, unfortunately, The Order also had spies in the Muggle World as well, so they would have to be quick at both ends, unless they risked being discovered, Sirius privately was kicking himself having forgotten to give himself a disguise as well.

The two of them approached the northern end of the alley, an area of the place which was less crowded seeming than the rest, a large building that gave off a strange omen towered above the entire alley, as if looming down upon them all. A large sign rested over the giant archway leading into the building, it read: 'Gringotts Wizarding Bank."

"Come," Sirius said to the blond behind him, "We'd better get you some money at first."

"Of course," Harry agreed.

The two of them pressed forward, walking directly into the bank, Harry looked around cautiously. He still didn't know too much about them, but over the years he'd always kept the thing that Hagrid had told him about them in the back of his mind whenever he visited this place. The Goblins arched their eyebrows upon seeing him, but it wasn't the usual cruel expression one would expect them to share when they discovered a disguised person…who could very well turn out to be a thief of some kind.

Sirius and Harry approached the front desk, The former grinning when he saw who exactly was behind the aforementioned desk, "Ragnok, you're on front desk duty?"

"Aye, I don't mind it, Grim. It's better than sitting in that stuffy office all day, what can I do for you today?"

"I need to speak with you," Sirius said, then he lowered his voice, " _Ac hegakhaan."_

Ragnok's eyes widened for a moment, but after a second's hesitation he nodded, " _A al togeraal dar a dekar duuch kaalkaalkaar muul duun shuukaagaan ac or khrakhegaan duukuun Kuur Rhan, A arolkaan ar an rhaalaraan daan dach magaan or daaraan dran. A shac haar akuukhaar duun dar daan draan dhuur ghaan ac daac daan ghuul magaan den hegakhaan shuukaagakhec o draaregaan, dech daan rhuun rhaan lhuukec an? Men dreroraan...aaln khruur daagekaan._ "

Sirius almost smirked, but knew better to in an official setting, " _Ar dan shaklaal ar tuur khruukhelaan, rhor on maan dech rhaan lhuukec an or gharaarec. Tach daan huun?"_

" _Or shuugaan_ ," Ragnok turned to a Goblin whom was stood beside the front desk and gave him a small nod, "Graplock. I need you to watch the front desk for me."

"Of course, majesty."

Ragnok nodded once more, then he dropped down from the teller's desk and walked around to the front of it, he was slightly taller than the average Goblin, his hair was tied into a neat little ponytail, and his left ear was pierced with a silver ring that had a fang dangling from the end.

" _Shuulkaan al'duuc akuun daan rhan daac. A arolkaan daan magaan ghon duun dreron, Kuur Rhan._ "

Ragnok lead Harry and Sirius down an ornate looking hallway behind the front desk, it was relatively the same looking as the main entrance of the bank. Marble flooring lined the hallway with strange designs emblazoned atop it, Harry could only assume that these were from the Goblin's own culture as he'd never seen anything like them anywhere else in the Wizarding world. The walls were painted a dark shade of maroon, lit by the strangest looking torches that Harry had seen, they looked like miniature tridents and three identical orbs of light hovered just above the forked ends.

He'd not been into this part of Gringotts before, it was so different to the lower levels where the vaults were, and Harry found himself entranced by the entire theme of it, a sense of chaos, in peace. It gave the last Potter a new-found respect for Goblins, their architecture was wonderful! He turned to Sirius and grinned.

The older man merely chuckled and continued to follow Ragnok along the hallway. All three of the men felt that it would be better to have silence until they reached the privacy of this room that Ragnok was leading them to.

The Goblin stepped up to a door on the left-hand side of the hallway and pressed his palm directly into the centre of the wood, " _Kaal'daaraan Dec Rhuuc ac Kaagaach Or Okakaan."_

A soft hue of amber energy emitted from Ragnok's palm, the ring on his middle finger of the same hand glowing with a faint sheen of sapphire. The two acted as a key and a lock, the wooden door melting away from the frame, revealing their path of entrance. The room itself was rather bland. It had the same marble flooring as the hallway and the same torches but the walls were grey slabs of concrete all melded together. The only thing of note in this room was a desk with an office chair on one side and two regular chairs on the other.

Ragnok quickly crossed the room and dropped into the office chair, he swivelled it to look at the two new entrants into his office, "I apologize for the décor, it was designed by wizards. Now Lord Black, what can I do for you today?"

"Two things, first…" Sirius said, both he and Harry crossing the room and dropping into the seats across the desk from the Goblin, "I'm bringing together the old crew."

"The old crew?"

" _Daan Haan Duuch Tuulekhec._ "

"And you wish to know if I still hold the same interest in the group as I did in days old?"

"Yes, that was my hope at least," Sirius continued, his grey-blue eyes boring into Ragnok's own, the Goblins were powerful allies in the last war and Sirius was determined to garner their loyalty for his side, rather than Voldemort swooping in when everyone least expected it and recruiting them for himself. Sirius felt that the Goblins had been disrespected by the wizarding community for far too long and, like he wished to help Remus get extra rights…he wanted to fight for the Goblins as well, he hated that Umbridge woman that had caused all these damned legislations to be passed over the years.

" _Ghaan ac ghec tech rhuukhaar duuch rhaan muukuugaal, Kuur Rhan._ "

A broad grin broke out over the ex-convict's face, he'd gotten the response he'd been hoping for in the end, now there was only the matter of the second part of the meeting, the portion that would involve Harry.

"And the second thing, Kuur Rhan?"

"I wish to have a legacy test done for my Godson."

"A legacy test?" Harry asked, looking between the two others.

"A legacy test, Mr. Potter, yes I can see through your disguise, before you ask. Is a test designed to discover the legacy of a witch or wizard, in other words it shows your inheritances and the families you are related to."

"Sirius?"

"That's only if he agrees."

"I agree."

"Alright," Ragnok said, removing a piece of parchment from the inside of his desk, "Let's begin."

 _ **End Chapter.**_

 _ **Sorry to cut this one short guys, I just felt it was the right place to cut it off for now. I know I'm with-holding their meeting for the first time, but I promise that there's a reason for it that will become clear in the next couple of chapters.**_

 _ **Bye for now!**_

 _ **Nox!**_


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or anything related.

CHAPTER SEVEN: SURPRISES EVERYWHERE!

The blood trickled down from the end of the blade, dripping down onto the parchment below. The crimson liquid slowly drew into itself, forming words across the parchment. Harry turned his emerald optics down towards the page and immediately those same orbs widened.

 _Harry James Ignotus Potter-Peverell-Gryffindor_

 _Species: Wizard_

 _Blood-Status: Pure_

 _Age: 15_

 _Birthdate: 31_ _st_ _July 1980_

 _Occupation: Student at Hogwarts School_

 _House: Gryffindor_

 _Inheritances:_

 _Lordship of Potter, Peverell and Gryffindor Families._

 _Heirship of Black Family_

 _Sizeable Accounts of Gold, all merged for convenience._

 _Three seats on Wizenagamot._

 _Various heirlooms all stored within the same account as the gold._

"Whoa," Harry breathed after reading the results of the test over with baited breath, whatever Harry had been expecting, this wasn't part of it, that was for sure. To be fair, he'd not been expecting more than what he already had in the vault that his parents had left for him in the event of their deaths. Growing up alone at the Dursleys without knowing he had that amount of money was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing was that he now knew to appreciate what he had, whereas with the curse it was that he could've afforded to buy his own place years ago.

"I trust by that tone that you are surprised, Harry, it's not every day that you discover that you are lord of three of the most powerful and influential families within the magical community as well as heir to a fourth that commands the same level of respect."

"Well I definitely wasn't expecting it for sure, now your majesty, I have to ask, is there a way for me to link something to my account so I don't have to go down to my vault every time I come in?"

Ragnok scratched at the small tuft of hair beneath his pointed chin for a moment, then he nodded and extracted something from the inside of the draw and tapped it with his finger for a moment causing it to glow.

"Here you are, Mr. Potter."

The item Harry had just received was a rectangle of plastic with strange symbols down the side on one end, then a black strip down one side on the flip of it.

"It's a debit card," The Goblin King explained, "Reserved for the more wealthy members of the wizarding community, it's capable of being used in both the wizard and muggle worlds so there's no need to worry about exchanges either."

"Brilliant," Harry said brightly, "Thank you, sir."

"Eh, don't mention it. I suppose you'll need to get him moving quickly then, Kuur Rhan, don't give Dumbledore the chance to even suspect he's found you."

"You're right, your majesty. Thank you either way, shall we get going then Harry?"

"Yeah," he agreed, raising to his feet quickly, "Thank you again, your majesty."

"It was my pleasure, Mr. Potter."

Harry and Sirius left the bank after that, seeing as their was no more they needed to do, although Harry might like to have stopped to examine the family heirlooms in the vault, he also understood the importance for maintaining a good sense of organisation and speed today, there would be time in future to come back and look through the various things he'd received through his inheritance later.

"Okay, so the first thing we should do is go and get you a new wand," at Harry's horrified expression, Sirius patted him on the shoulder, "it's always good to have a backup especially when you're going into battle, kiddo."

Over the next few hours, Sirius and Harry managed to cover all of the shops in Diagon Alley that they needed to and were even able to visit all of the Muggle stores needed for things like clothing and stuff like that. Both had been surprised that they had not run into the order yet, but neither Harry nor Sirius was going to complain about missing them.

x-x-x-

Albus Dumbledore had seen a lot in his great many years of being the leading force for the light and the man obsessed with protecting the 'greater good.' When, in truth, Dumbledore couldn't really give a damn about the so-called 'greater good' the only thing that mattered to the aged headmaster was his plan for _his own greatest good._ The plan in which Harry Potter remains his man right until the very end and Dumbledore swoops in and cashes in on the success retaining his stature and power rather than to go on to become forgotten about in the end.

He would not have that for as long as he should live, it was unacceptable that the world dares to something like that to him, after all he had done for the good of society. His usually twinkling eyes were completely monotone and for the first time, Albus Dumbledore looked older than he had ever been seen before, his plans for his own life and Harry Potter's were going up in smoke and there was seemingly nothing he could do about it. Well that was untrue, of course, he was the _great_ Albus Dumbledore and he was going to figure this out no matter what it took.

He looked towards Fawkes who was currently stood on his perch looking at Dumbledore curiously, "Fawkes, I would request that you organize a meeting with the Minister."

The Phoenix released a small trill, then flamed himself right out of Dumbledore's office.

x-x-x-x-

Bellatrix Black led her two sisters straight into the Ministry of Magic, they'd used the visitor's entrance and while the three of them found it to be a pain in the rear end to do it that way, they were not employed here at present so for now, they had no choice. Bella made her way towards the front desk and smiled thoughtfully at the man seated behind the counter.

"Hello," she began, "I've got an appointment with Contracts and Betrothals?"

"Name?"

"Black, Bellatrix."

"Ah yes, right this way please."

The short man stood up from his seat and guided the Black sisters through the door behind the desk into a rather long hallway, each labelled with a department head's title and name beneath it, at the end of the hall was a large door with a golden plaque in the centre slightly above eye-level

 _ **Minister of Magic**_

 _ **Cornelius O. Fudge**_

' _ **Magic is Potential, Politics is Riches.'**_

"Trust the buffoon of a minister to have that on his door," Narcissa hissed in the direction of her two sisters, "One must wonder how he's done it all these years."

"Cunning and being in your ex-husband's pocket all these years," a voice from behind them stated.

The three women whipped round to see a rather tall and attractive looking male with dark hair and brilliant blue eyes, "My name is Mason Fawley, Head of the Department of Contracts and Betrothals. I was made aware of an appointment that we should keep?"

"Yes, Director Fawley, it is pertaining to a marriage contract forged between the three of us and another."

"I hope you do not wish to see it revoked, Marriage contracts especially, are very temperamental when seeking to tamper with them."

"No, we instead wish to seek a way to protect our contract from… _unsavoury hands._ "

Mason Fawley understood this perfectly, throughout history, but more commonly in the past five years, there'd been an outpour of people trying to manipulate marriage and betrothal contracts, he'd been working closely with the Auror department to try and flush out those who'd been doing it, but there'd never been enough solid evidence to do something about it, so all he could do was to make sure that he protected as many of the contracts as he possibly could.

"Very well, come inside."

He turned on heel and pushed the door to his office open once again, leading the three women inside. He sauntered across his office and then dropped down into the seat behind the large desk at the head of it. Once the door had been closed, Fawley turned his attention to the Black sisters and gave them a smile, "You wish to hide evidence of your Marriage Contract with Harry Potter from the likes of Albus Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge, correct?"

"How did you-?"

"In the Ministry circles I'm known as Director Fawley of the Department of Contracts and Betrothals. Outside of the Ministry Circles I'm known as Lord Fawley of the most ancient and most noble house of Fawley, one of the knights of the Grey Wolf Society, Lord Black contacted me this morning and gave me the grave news pertaining to Lord Potter's relationship with some of the adults in his life and I have to tell you it left a lot to be desired, I jumped right back on board with the society as soon as Sirius relayed to me that it'd been reformed, for now though we should go about making these contracts protected. But first, I must ask, Andromeda, right? Is your daughter here?"

"Nymphadora? No, she's busy with Auror missions I expect."

"She'll need to be brought into the fold very soon."

"She will, why?"

"There is a fourth Black-Potter contract."

" _James and Sirius got my daughter involved in this as well!?"_

"No," Fawley said, shaking his head, "This contract was written three generations before James and Sirius wrote theirs, but since James and Sirius' magic combined was stronger than the first contract theirs took priority and now the only Black woman left for young Lord Potter to be betrothed to is your daughter."

"I suppose we'll have to bring her in on this then, she'll be in the office for the Aurors, right?"

"Unfortunately, she's out on a mission today, ordinarily I'd not allow it, but because we're on a schedule to make sure that these a free from outside interference I shall allow you to speak on your daughter's behalf."

"Thank you, Director."

"Not an issue, now…let's get started."

x-x-x-x-x

"Well, we finally made it back and with an hour to spare," Sirius said, exhaling a sigh of relief that he hadn't been aware he was holding. Without another word, Sirius leaned over and tapped his wand against the top of Harry's head, breaking the disguise now that they were safely back in Grimmauld Place.

Harry nodded quietly, his hands slipping into his pockets on instinct alone, he wasn't exactly sure on the time that his new betrotheds were supposedly arriving and now that he and Sirius were finished in Diagon Alley and he had nothing productive to concentrate, Harry found his nerves taking hold of the situation once more.

"You're going to put a dent in yourself," Sirius teased, "I reckon it won't be as bad as you think it will, Harry."

"Speak for yourself," the emerald eyed teenager groaned, whatever this was it was not going to be easy, no matter what Sirius was trying to tell him. This was completely something out of left-field that Harry wasn't expecting and even though he'd been given a small amount of time to come to terms with the fact that it was going ahead no matter what he had to say about it, it didn't make the change any easier to accept.

"Just be patient, pup, I promise that you're going to love them. They can be a bit of a pain in the arse at times, but what woman isn't?"

"I don't know Padfoot, you seem to be the running expert on women so you tell me."

"Ouch pup, that stings."

"Not as much as it should, old dog."

Releasing another sigh, Harry turned his attention to the empty fireplace, "I'm sorry Padfoot, I'm just frustrated right now, it…"

"It's all this new information still burning in your mind," Sirius supplied, "and it's not to worry, it would be a lot for anyone to process, but this is ultimately the best move for any of us."

"If you say so."

Right as Harry finished speaking, he felt a slight shift in the energy within Number Twelve, he couldn't explain what the sudden ability to sense shifting magic had come from, but he'd have to ask Sirius about it later, "Someone's entering the wards," he said without even considering how it might sound.

His godfather came him a strange look, then nodded, "That'll be them."


	8. Chapter 8

_**DISCLAIMER: I don't own HP or anything associated. Just playing in the sandbox a bit.**_

Chapter Eight: A Different Sort of Light

"That'll be them."

The moment that Sirius uttered those words, Harry felt his heart-rate on the increase, the shift was rapid, and he could barely keep up with the haste of the emotions charging through his mind. He wasn't even sure that he was ready for this to happen, but he also knew that he couldn't put it off any longer. He reasoned that this was probably natural, Sirius hadn't given him any indication that it wasn't, so he hoped that this feeling wasn't unnatural. He bit back the initial surge of anger at his father and godfather for landing him in this mess, but he managed to fight it down enough to focus on the task at hand.

"Sirius?" a loud voice called through the house, "We're here."

Harry didn't recognize the voice, but he figured that Sirius did since his godfather shouted back to the voice without hesitation a moment later, "We're in the kitchen!"

Harry took another deep breath, in a few moments his fate would be completely sealed and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Why was it always him? Despite himself a soft snort escaped from Harry's lips and he leaned against the wall, his arms folding over his chest. The door to the basement kitchen of the house opened and a tall dark woman with long, thick shiny dark hair, thin lips, heavily-lidded eyes with long eyelashes, and a strong jaw sauntered into the room. The woman was outfitted in a set of black robes. The bodice clung to her curves impressively and it flowed out into a skirt that trailed down to the ground below her. This woman was flanked by two others.

The first was tall, slim, and very pale, with blue eyes and long blonde hair. She was wearing a dark green set of robes that had been tailored to look as though the entire ensemble hugged her curves flatteringly. Her facial expression was impassive but not entirely unpleasant. Finally, the last woman in the group strikingly resembled the first, though she had light brown hair instead of black, and had softer and wider eyes. Her outfit was a ruby set of robes which also hugged her curves but done at a more modest tone than either of the two women alongside her.

"Sirius Black," Narcissa said softly, "it certainly has been a while, hasn't it?"

"I'm glad to see that we've managed to pull you out of that life with no major repercussions."

"My only grievance is that my son will now be left to the mercy of his father because of his own stupidity into blindingly following the fool that is Lucius Malfoy."

Sirius stepped around the table, allowing for Harry to remain off to the side for now. He'd not push his godson into the fray to early lest he incur the new wrath that Harry seemed to have developed ever since the younger male had been informed of the truth regarding his aged headmaster. The man's grey-blue eyes fell onto his cousins and he placed his hand upon her shoulder, looking straight into her eyes.

"Draco made his decision, Ciss. You can't blame yourself, not matter how painful it is to think about it."

"Sirius is right," Andromeda put in, laying her other hand on her elder sister's shoulder, "You couldn't have controlled the decision that he would make."

Bellatrix, on the other hand, had caught sight of the young man standing against the wall with his arms folded. From her point-of-view it looked as though he were waiting for some kind of cue that it was his turn to enter the conversation. Despite her confidence before coming here, she felt the rush of something inside her. She spared him a wink then turned back to the conversation at hand.

"It's good that the four of us are all in one place again without our wands pointed at each other's throats," Bellatrix commented, a playful little smile already emblazoned across her face.

Harry felt his cheeks heating slightly at the wink. Given the oddity of the situation, Harry hadn't been expecting…well, whatever he _had_ been expecting wasn't this. He would play his cards close to his chest for now. He stepped off the wall and approached the group.

"Hello," the words were spoken without malice as one might expect, but they weren't especially kind either. Given his lessons about adults of late, Harry had learned the dangers of trusting them without any good reason.

"Hello there," Andromeda stated, approaching Harry first. The light-brown haired woman extended her hand towards Harry in the ensuing moments, "My name's Andromeda Black, but Andie will be fine."

Harry nodded and shook her hand, "It's nice to meet you, I'm Harry Potter."

Following Andromeda's example both Bellatrix and Narcissa stepped forward and shook Harry's hand in turn and introduced themselves as well.

Sirius thought that the meeting had gone surprisingly well thus far, it wasn't what one might've expected from someone who'd been so hostile about it a week ago, but maybe having that week to calm down had worked exactly as Sirius had intended it to.

"Did you manage to sort the contract with Fawley?" he asked the Black sisters.

"We did and there's no way that Fudge or Dumbledore can get their grubby hands on it."

"Good."

"Fawley?" Harry asked confusedly.

"Head of The Department of Contracts and Betrothals," Bellatrix told Harry, "we wanted to make sure that no matter what happened that this couldn't be interfered with."

"Speaking of which, we have another problem," Narcissa interjected, "Were you aware of a fourth contract?"

Harry was practically seething now, his head whipped in Sirius' direction. His previously unobtrusive stance going fully rogue, his brow shot up in his anger, " _A FOURTH CONTRACT, PADFOOT?"_

Sirius paled under Harry's gaze and the older man could've sworn he felt quake beneath the young man's rage, "Easy Harry," Sirius tried, hopefully working to calm his godson at least partially. He moved across the kitchen and gently ruffled Harry's already messy hair, "I had no idea."

"Well, who is it?" Harry asked sharply.

Andromeda heaved a sigh, her brow creasing some but she managed to get the words out despite the boy's outburst, "My daughter, Nymphadora Tonks."

"Does she know?"

"Not yet, I've not got around to it since we only found out today and were coming here after the meeting but I assure you that I'll inform her first thing tomorrow."

A sigh tumbled from Harry's lips and his arms defaulted to the position of being crossed over his chest once more, "Fine. I suppose there's nothing to be done about it. Obviously we're all stuck with this and just have to keep moving forward."

Harry's maturity surprised Sirius for an instant, the maturity was a relief. It disproved Dumbledore's theory about Harry being nothing but a child who needed protection indefinitely. He leaned back slightly, not trusting that there wouldn't be an outburst to follow.

"And we're all stuck in this, so we'd may as well try and make the best of it."

"Well said, Harry," Andromeda stated, a soft smile being displayed on her features. The woman took a step closer to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "I can't pretend that this situation isn't a bit strange, but we will do our best to give you all the love and support that you deserve."

"Thanks Andie," Harry returned her smile and finally took the opportunity to take in more of her appearance, her body curved in all the right places and her rather prominent chest was perfect in his opinion.

Seeing the focus of Harry's attention made the woman smirk, "I think he sees something he likes," she paused to wink at him, then added a further, "No problem."

Harry's cheeks immediately felt like they were burning up and he quickly stepped back from the close contact between the two of them and suddenly found the floor very interesting.

Laughter came from Narcissa and Bellatrix like it had from their sister, but they didn't make attempts to get closer to their young betrothed just yet. They felt it was something they should ease into. It also surprised them that for all his rage and stern attitude, when it came to the crunch Harry proved to be quite shy and cute about it if they had to be completely honest with themselves. Narcissa turned back to her cousin and gave a concerned look to the man, "Are you still sure about reforming the Grey Wolf was a good idea."

"Not really," Sirius admitted, "but Harry suggested it and I trust him."

"We need our own forces," Harry interjected, happy for the change of subject, "if we sit here and do nothing amongst the five us, Nymphadora and Remus then we're as good off as a dragon in the water."

"Bad analogy but I get the point," Narcissa continued, nodding softly in Harry's direction.

"Then, what's our next move?"

"I don't think it wise to do much planning yet," Sirius admitted, "We have to be cautious, move to soon and we'll create too much noise before we've really built up any momentum and then Dumbledore and his groupies will swoop in on us like a hoard of angry vultures."

"Now that we've had a discussion about it, I totally agree with you," Harry put in, "We can't alert Dumbledore to anything, the moment I do he's going to do everything in his power to get me back into his pocket and that's not a battle I'm quite ready to face just yet."

The words were almost despondent but Harry felt another hand on his shoulder, this time it belonged to Bellatrix.

"Don't worry about it just yet, Harry," she told him softly, "The time will come when we can remove you from that vice-grip he'd like to have on your life forever."

Harry nodded, once again allowing his gaze to sweep over the basement kitchen of the house. The kitchen itself had been set up to entertain multiple people it seemed. A long table stood erected in the centre of the room that had been lined with seats up both sides and one chair each was placed at the two ends of the table. To the left of the table was lines and lines of cabinets filled with various things to assist with cooking and finally a large stove was at the far corner, hidden away from the rest of the area.

"I think that's a good idea, I've got other things to focus on for the moment like getting stronger."

"And getting to know us, we at least want to try and be pleasant correct?"

"Yeah, that sounds like it'd be good!"

Now that he'd spent a little time talking to the three of his fiancées Harry felt reassured that the trio of the Black sisters were worth getting to know and he wanted to take the time to make sure that he did so.

"Well, we'd better go and make sure that our rooms are in working order. We'd not want to scare you by attempting to sleep in your bed the first time we've met."

"I appreciate that, thank you."

"You're more than welcome, Harry."

Andie stepped forward and gently pressed a kiss to Harry's forehead and once again he found the feeling of his face heating up rush through his entire body.

"See you in a bit, love," Andie told the young man cheekily, then she departed from the kitchen.

"Never seen her so happy," Bella said, playfully rolling her eyes, but she too followed suit by kissing Harry's forehead and walking out of the room behind her sister. Not long after this, Narcissa also applied a kiss to Harry's forehead and followed both Andie and Bellatrix out of the kitchen.

"Well?" Sirius asked Harry once the women had departed, "What do you think?"

"I think those three might just be the death of me, Padfoot."

 _ **End Chapter.**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Lumos!**_

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to it.

Chapter Nine: Rise

The headmaster's office itself is a large circular room with many windows and many portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses. The portrait of the immediate predecessor of the current headmaster or headmistress hangs behind the head's desk and is the largest within the office. Several rickety silvery tables were erected around the room and held various delicate silver objects that gleamed in the low light.

Upon the seat behind the tall and thin man with silver hair and beard so long that they could be tucked into his belt. He had a very long and crooked nose that looked as if it had been broken at least twice. His eyes were a brilliant, soul-piercing shade of blue, and were hidden behind a pair of half-moon spectacles.

"Any sign?"

"None, Professor Dumbledore."

A man with thin man with sallow skin, a large, hooked nose and yellow, uneven teeth. He dressed in flowing black robes which made him resemble an overgrown bat. He had shoulder-length, greasy black hair which framed his face in curtains, curling lips and dark and penetrating eyes that resembled tunnels.

"I didn't expect Black to linger once he'd discovered that he could remove Potter, but how on earth did your blood wards fail?"

Dumbledore peered over the half-moon glasses and allowed for a little sigh to escape from his lips, "I designed them so that the moment Harry Potter no longer considered Privet Drive home, the wards would drop permanently. It is my belief that when Sirius invited Harry to depart Privet Drive and live with him, Harry no longer considered Privet Drive home and therefore, the wards immediately closed down."

The greasy-haired man placed a hand on the corner of the headmaster's desk, looking the older man directly in the eye, "So what is it that you plan to do now Professor Dumbledore?"

"You must've discovered it by now, Severus."

The man now named Severus' eyes narrowed, "What do you mean?"

"I intend to collect Harry from Sirius and return him to Privet Drive immediately and reinstate Blood Wards with a different construction, so they will not break until the day Harry Potter turns seventeen. We will remove Potter by force if we have to."

"Understood, Professor Dumbledore."

"Now leave me, Severus. I have much to do. This latest string of inconveniences is pulling Harry Potter away from our mission of the greater good and I must make sure that he returns to the path that I have laid out for him."

"As you wish, Professor Dumbledore."

Once Severus had stepped out of his office, Dumbledore leaned forward onto his desk. He placed his elbows onto the cool surface and his usually twinkling blue eyes became dull for perhaps the first time in many months. If Harry Potter slipped completely out of his control then it would not bode well for the rest of the wizarding world. He couldn't in any conscience allow that to happen. He wouldn't either.

x-x-x-x

"Auror Tonks, glad to see you back in one piece."

"Thanks, Commander."

"Why do you insist on using that title?"

The young woman with dark twinkling eyes, a pale heart-shaped face and medium length bubble-gum pink tresses that flowed down to a point just above her shoulders presented the man with a smirk and folded her arms over her chest, "Well you are the commander of the mission are you not, Auror Moody?"

A grunt passed from the man's lips. His own appearance was very damaged, with a heavily scarred face and long, matted blond hair. Moody looked like a man who'd been through several wars to say the least. But the real oddity in his appearance was the magical eye sitting in the right-socket tied to his face in a way like what an eye-patch would be.

"You have a point," he said gruffly, "Now I'm busy with my reports, what do you want?"

"Remember that thing you asked me to look into?"

"What about it?"

"I've gotten some information."

This caught the Auror's attention and his magical eye rapidly moved into position for looking at the woman, "Well?" he snapped sharply.

"Oh, er…right."

Tonks clumsily rummaged through her bag and extracted a manilla folder with 'TOP SECRET' stamped across the front.

"Thank you for this, you're able to act more covertly than I am due to that mechanism you developed."

Tonks grinned, "I'm not all beauty and charm you know."

"Yeah, Yeah, just continue on with your tasks."

"As you wish, commander!" The woman gave Moody a mock-salute before turning on heel and departing the office once more.

Moody shook his head but glanced down at the folder she'd left for him anyway. The Dark-Wizard catching veteran thought it wouldn't be much to go off given the delicate nature of the secondary mission that Moody had assigned his former apprentice, but he hoped that it would be enough to give him a chance to start moving things forward.

Remus had openly asked him to re-join the Grey Wolf Society in the previous two nights and he was already working around the clock to make sure that they gained leverage against the Order of The Phoenix. Constant vigilance was his motto and he followed it like a powerful mantra.

Moody slipped the folder open and when his eyes, both magical and mundane widened. For Tonks to have got so much in just two nights was almost superhuman. How did she get her hands on this sort of information? He had to wonder, but that wasn't important for the most part. The Information and it would be enough evidence to make for a case against the headmaster.

"Auror Tonks?"

Luckily Tonks wasn't too far out of the door that she couldn't hear her mentors voice. She quickly returned to the doorway and poked her head inside, "You called Commander."

"I did, and this isn't the time for the jokes, kid. How'd you get your hands on this kind of information?"

"Like I said, I'm not all beauty and charm. I had some help, but the goblins were forthcoming in the end. Well, that was for the bank statements at least, the other information I managed to get testimonies from Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger using Veritaserum. Which also alerted me to Molly Weasley's involvement as well."

"And the other Weasleys?"

"To my knowledge they have no involvement, not even Ginny."

"That's concerning, does Arthur know that his wife is involved this deeply in Dumbledore's schemes?"

"I'm guessing not, I feel sorry for the poor guy."

"Hopefully this will bring him to the _true_ light side. Along with the twins. Those three would prove invaluable towards our efforts."

"Now, how are we supposed to go public with this?"

"Well," Moody said, scratching at his chin thoughtfully, "I doubt our _esteemed_ Minister would turn down a chance to throw Dumbledore out as the manipulative, scheming old traitor that he is. Though, he may be hesitant because Dumbledore is the only one Voldemort ever feared."

"All we can do is try."

"Good."

x-x-x-x-x-

"Concentrate, Harry."

"I can't, it's too difficult Padfoot!" Harry growled loudly.

"Alright, alright let's take a break."

Ever since they'd had breakfast that morning, Sirius had been attempting to train Harry in the art of Occlumency and for want of a better phrase it wasn't going to well. Sirius was breaking through Harry's defences too easily. Panting some the younger wizard crossed the room, he leaned against the wall gripping it tightly.

"Your mind-wall is doing well and is holding me off at first but it's still rather easy, maybe you could try a different idea."

Harry thought about it for a moment, then he nodded, "alright, we can try again but let me catch my breath here for a moment."

"I'll give you that reprieve. This magic is quite taxing on the mind and body at first, then once you've worked yourself up to it the shields become almost second nature. There are some less knowledgeable about the art who assume that the best way to master Occlumency is to have someone forcing their way into your mind repeatedly. This is an inexperienced view on the magic and can lead to the death of either the trainee _or_ the trainer."

Harry listened to his godfather's explanations quietly. This was important information, even if it wouldn't seem like it to anyone else. Harry would need to work heavily if he was going to be able to defend his mind from the workings of Albus Dumbledore and he was determined to get it right no matter the cost.

After taking a few more breaths, Harry turned his attention back to his godfather and nodded, "I'm ready."

"Alright, start constructing the shield."

Harry's emerald pools were closed the moment Sirius gave the instruction to begin and Harry decided to throw a new idea in the works. He constructed what he felt construed the idea the best and then his eyes were re-opened a second later.

"I'm ready," he told his godfather.

"Very well, Harry."

Sirius rose his wand once more and uttered the incantation, " _Legillimens!"_

A short rush of wind followed the exclamation and Sirius felt his mind tugged out of his head and thrown into the mind of the young man opposite him. Sirius stepped into a room that was practically empty save for five or six desks strategically placed inside with faceless students sitting around the classroom. The only recognizable face was Harry's. The young man was hunched over the desk working on paper work, he then looked up and said, "Professor?"

A pseudo-Remus Lupin stepped into the light and looked down over to Harry, "Yes, Harry?"

"I was wondering If you were alright?"

"I am fine Harry, the holidays are always tough for me."

Harry then turned his head to the invader in his mind and muttered something. A burst of magic later and the pseudo Sirius was thrown out of Harry's mind and back into his own body within the room.

"Bloody Merlin," Sirius cursed, gripping the wall beside him. The last living male Black was heaving breaths through both his nostrils and mouth, "How the hell did you do that?"

Harry was also hunched over slightly, releasing his own heavy breaths but managed to get out, "I decided to work on something a little unorthodox. I constructed a memory that would appear to the invader as whatever memory that they want to see in their heart. So for example Dumbledore would see an unsure young man looking for his guidance. You, would see a memory of both your best-friend and godson working together for the betterment of a society outside of Dumbledore's graps right under his nose. I furthered it by making it covertly sap the invader of their magical strength to the point that continuous use of the spell drains the caster twice as fast but as I get more experienced I'll increase the speed of which the strength is sapped but not to a pace that makes it become obvious."

Sirius moved across the flooring of the private library. Several bookshelves lined the room as one might expect and luckily for Sirius in his current state there was a giant desk erected in the center of the room with a large seat behind it. He dropped into the seat and ran a hand through his long, dark tresses.

"That's ingenious! How did you come up with it?"

"I'm not really sure," Harry stated, shrugging some, "It sort of just hit me and it was easy enough to apply my magic to it."

"Have you ever had any teachings in wandless magic, Harry?"

"Not that I know of, why?"

"Incredible," Sirius murmured, looking as though he had a faraway sort of expression on his face.

"What's incredible?"

"You may hate hearing it Harry, but this makes you more like your parents than you know. Both of them also had a natural aptitude for wandless magic."

"Draining magic like that is considered wandless?"

"Perhaps not, but we can't rule out the possibility. We should look into training that aptitude just in case. If we can't then we can chalk this up to something else but if it proves to be wandless magic then you will have an almost infallible asset to your repertoire of skills. But we should stop for now. While your body is undergoing the healing process right now, it's unwise for you to be overexerting yourself."

"Thanks Sirius."

Harry felt incredibly drained by the first lesson in Occlumency, the strange limitation on his magic had been pushed to the very brink of its capacity and Harry was having to grip the wall tightly to remain standing. The heavy force pulsating against his chest was dangerous. He'd barely gasped for air when Sirius was at his side, holding him up steadily.

"You alright, pup?"

"Ye..Yeah," Harry said through his heavily laboured breathing.

"Come on, let's go and get you sat down."

"Good plan."

Sirius supported Harry out of the Library, carrying the boy's weight out into the hall of their home and down the long stretch of it. The hallway itself was rather barren. There were no hanging portraits as one might expect from an aged wizarding home. The walls themselves were covered in deep, charcoal wallpaper that depicted the black family crest over the entirety of it.

Sirius managed to pull Harry across two more rooms and opened the door and led him into a large room with the same charcoal black-crest wallpaper, bright glimmering emerald coloured carpet and the furniture resting atop it. The furniture itself was a large sofa made of black leather and a large circular coffee table as well. Sirius lowered Harry into the sofa and then took the armchair beside it. He leaned back in the seat and then looked over at his godson.

"Just take a few breaths."

Harry nodded, pushing himself back into the sofa and heaved a few breaths out of him, slowly he felt his body beginning to return to normal. He released a soft groan and then said, "Well, I'm going to be really glad when we finally get that bloody block taken off. I can't keep dealing with this."

"You're healing has been going really well and I'll get word to Moony so that we can get it removed. We can't leave it much longer because we're still on that two week clock before the magic begins turning in on itself and sucking your life force."

"Did my parents put the block on me? I heard that parents do that with powerful children and then remove it once they turn eleven."

"No," Sirius said, "Your mother and father didn't have any time to see your magic before they passed on. Three guesses who put it on you."

A snarl flew from Harry's lips and he knew in that moment that if his body wasn't in such a state he'd have leaped to his feet, "Damn that old bastard!"

"Relax," Sirius warned him, "I know that it's completely wrong and messed up what that old fools done, but there's no use getting into a state over it when your body is like this."

Harry took a calming breath, then retreated against the sofa. How dare that man? How dare he? What right did he have getting tied up in Harry's life like this? Just because he was so encumbered with Voldemort? Did Dumbledore honestly think? If he wanted Harry's loyalty this was not the way to go about it in even a small part of the meaning.

"I kind of want a nap," Harry said, even though his body was regulating slowly, he still felt utterly exhausted from all that had happened in the last few minutes. His eyes began drooping even before he'd fully finished speaking the sentence. A nod was spoken from Sirius and then he stood from his seat and patted Harry's head.

"You get some rest kiddo, don't even bother going to your bed, these couches won't hurt your back to sleep on, Lily once told me that Muggle ones were horrible. These ones are charmed so it'll be fine."

x-x-

" _What do you have to report?" the high, cold and cruel voice spoke, the sound ringing through the area._

" _The Ministry is still clueless as to your return my lord," Lucius Malfoy stated softly, "Though there are a few stubborn idiots that insist you have, the minister seems not to be buying it at any capacity whatsoever."_

" _Good," Voldemort said, leaning back in the large seat at the head of the table, "the longer the minister remains ignorant, the longer we can move in the darkness without being detected. What news do we have of Bellatrix and Narcissa?"_

" _They've been completely moved to the opposing side milord," Lucius said, looking over to his master and looking him directly in the eye, "I'm sure that you've seen the papers by now, but it looks as though they've been completely moved from our ranks."_

" _It is a non-concern. We will find them and punish them for disobeying me. There is another matter I wish to discuss with you."_

" _Yes, what is it?"_

" _We are going to need more information about the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries. I want us to find the position of it. If we pull the move right, we can lure Potter into collecting it for me rather than having to go through the Ministry myself and revealing myself before I deem it necessary."_

x-x-

"Harry! Harry!"

Two emerald eyes snapped open and Harry, still thrashing slightly began muttering, "He's going to use me to get it! He's going to use me to get it."

"Harry, calm down it's okay, it was just a nightmare!"

Finally Harry's vision caught up with his mind and he gazed up at the beautiful figure gazing down upon his dishevelled features, the woman leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss to Harry's forehead, "Shh, it's alright you're home."

She pulled the young man up into her arms and hugged her tightly.

"Harry, what happened?" another voice asked from the side slightly.

"You can't just force him into talking about it the moment he's woken up, Ciss."

Harry heard Andromeda scolding her sister for trying to pressure him into revealing what'd happened right away, but he was content to just lean forward further into Andromeda's embrace. It was a little odd that he felt a little closer to her than he had yesterday, but perhaps he'd just been searching for the comfort after his nightmare.

Bellatrix had moved behind Harry and knelt down to place a kiss at the top of her head, "You don't need to worry, you're here with us now. We won't hurt you."

Harry quickly got to his feet and shook his head rapidly, "S…sorry I can't…"

And without another word he darted out of the room.

A sigh fell from Andromeda's lips and she placed her hand on Bellatrix's shoulder to hold her back from going after Harry, "Not yet," she told her sister, "He's got to try and organize his thoughts around this matter and it won't help to push him before he's ready."

Bellatrix felt a rush of anger sweep through her and she rounded on Narcissa within a split second, " _This is your fault!"_

"You're blaming me?"

"If you hadn't have opened your mouth and pushed him to reveal what the nightmare was about the moment he fucking opened his eyes!"

"There's no use playing the blame game," Andromeda said, after giving a deep sigh, "That's going to get us nowhere. Let him go to Sirius if he feels more comfortable talking to him about things. We have to respect him enough to treat him as an adult otherwise he's only going to lump us into the same category as he's put every other adult in his life aside from Sirius and Remus, alright?"

Harry fled the room as quickly as he could. Not because of the dream itself, but because of the closeness exhibited by the three women after such a short time of them knowing each other. Sure they were all betrothed due to the contracts, but Harry felt that things were moving at a far too intense pace in such a short time that he didn't feel like he could keep up. He barely knew the women after all. Sure, they'd all kissed him on the forehead last night and that didn't seem like much. He just assumed that it was part of the meet and greet. Perhaps his lack of knowledge in the 'love' department was playing a part in this. Harry Potter was never shown any sort of care or love on any level before he met Sirius so hopefully they didn't expect him to pick it all up instantly.

Harry just wished he knew how to explain it to them.

Seeing his godson rushing through the house in a way that could be described as a deer caught in headlights, it didn't take Sirius too long to figure out what'd happened. He'd been dealing with something Kreacher had done which meant he wasn't privy to much of what'd happened but the look on Harry's face was definitely enough for him to go on.

"You alright pup?"

"Y…No, I had a nightmare, Sirius."

"Was it a Voldemort one?"

"Yeah, he's going to try and lure me to collect something called a Prophecy? What's that got to do with anything and why does it need to be me or him to collect it specifically?"

"Because, Harry…Prophecies may only be collected by those whom they are made about."

x-x-x-x-x

"Well?"

"I think it is enough for you to be given a warrant, Auror Moody. Though I do not know why you took this to me rather than the Head Auror."

"As you can see, Bones, it's a delicate matter and I don't know if I can trust that guy, cons-"

"Constant Vigilance," Madame Bones stated, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Though she didn't appreciate Moody's constant exclamation of those words, she could understand where he was going with this, but she pressed on either way, knowing the importance of this matter, "Bring him directly to me once you've collected him. I don't trust Dumbledore as far as I can throw him, this evidence gives further backing to this claim and I want him to be tried for everything that he's done."

"As you wish, I'll take a team if that's alright. I don't trust him not to have some sort of escape plan."

"Permission granted, just don't let the old fool escape."

 _End Chapter._

 _Hopefully this somewhat longer chapter is a sign of things to come, I know my chapters have been short in the past, but there were some things going on with my mental health that had to be addressed and I was really just putting things out as I could. I wasn't going to say anything but a reviewer brought this to my attention and I wanted to speak about it so they didn't feel like I was just brushing it under the rug or whatever._

 _Thank you guys for your support, it honestly means the world to me. Happy Reading and I'll see you next time._

 _ **Nox!**_


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